1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hospital beds and beds for supporting incapacitated or partially incapacitated patients, and more particularly to beds of the type capable of maintaining traction on a patient supported thereby.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is sometimes necessary that persons who are injured or handicapped, either temporarily or permanently, must be maintained in traction for certain periods of time in the course of treatment and thereapy for their conditions or injuries. For example, patients with various types of neck or back injuries may need to have their necks or legs maintained in traction for relatively long periods of time to allow healing of the injury. In other cases, a patient's condition or injury may require that his head or certain limbs be maintained in traction at a particular angle to alleviate pain.
Several prior hospital beds, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,690,177 and 3,302,218, are capable of maintaining constant traction on a patient lying in the bed when the patient is rotated or "turned over". It is very important to be able to turn over patients confined to a hospital bed so that they are shifted from a position wherein they are lying on their back to a position wherein they are lying on their stomach in order to avoid serious discomfort which results when a patient lies only in one position for a long period of time. If the patient is required to be maintained in traction, it may be very desirable that the traction be maintained while the patient is being turned over to avoid pain or injury to the patient. The beds disclosed in the above mentioned patents accomplish this goal under certain conditions. However, sometimes it is necessary that traction be applied to the head or a limb of a patient in a direction which is substantialy different that the direction of the axis about which the bed rotates. The beds shown in the above mentioned patents are incapable of maintaining constant traction on a patient at a substantial angle measured with respect to the turning axis of their patient supporting frames or pallets.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a rollover bed which is capable of maintaining constant traction at a substantial angle measured with respect to the turning axis of the bed while the patient is being turned.
In many cases, it is highly desirable that a rollover bed to which an incapacitated patient is confined be flexible at its midpoint so that the body of the patient can flex so as to allow him to sit at an at least upright angle so that his upper body is not in a completely prone position. Both the physical comfort and the psychological welfare of the patient may be greatly benefited by allowing the patient to sit in an at least partially upright position. It is especially important to the mental welfare of persons confined to a bed for a long time that they not always have a look upward from a completely prone position to all who visit or attend to them. The beds shown in the above mentioned patents are not capable of midpoint flexing or knee joint flexing, nor is any other known bed capable of simultaneous midpoint or knee flexing and maintaining constant traction tension on a patient.
Accordingly, it is another object of the invention to provide a bed which is capable of allowing midbody and/or knee joint flexing of a patient supported thereon while maintaining constant traction tension on the patient during the flexing operation and while the patient remains in the flexed position.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a rollover bed capable of providing midbody flexing for a patient thereon.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a rollover bed capable of providing midbody flexing of a patient thereon and also capable of maintaining constant angular tension of the patient during both rollover and midbody flexing operations.
A novelty search directed to the present invention uncovered the following additional U.S. Pat. Nos., which are believed to be illustrative of the state of the art pertaining to the invention: 4,127,906,; 3,862,454; 3,238,539; 3,266,061; 3,530,514; 3,581,320 and 3,827,089.